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[aster]

Hi Birma; : )

Love the frosty scenery shots by your wife. The thin layer of ice on those branches truly creates a 'fragile crystalline' sculpture all round. It's like walking in the fairy Iceland... : )) The road shot in the second photo is a good editorial with the 'SLOW' warning sign on the road surface.

And the sheep; they just know how to pose for a photographer on snow-covered ground. I have to agree; they are smiling good naturedly. : ))

Thanks for sharing...And thanks to Mrs. Birma for bringing the beauty that otherwise would be hidden from our eyes! : )

Surely, Tilly must have shot some too ? : ))


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Hi Henry;

Gorgeous sunset! The kind that desrves a silent ovation than too many words that would only break a golden silence! : )

Thanks for sharing. Amazing to see warm colours right after the frosty beauty shots that both come from the Northern Hemisphere!


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Hi John; : )

I see, you're almost ready for Christmas 'take off' for carols and spiritual healing! : )) Love your angelic Fred!


Thanks for sharing.


Yildiz

[aster]

Weather in Istanbul:
18° C | 6° C
Thursday Night :
Chance of Rain. Scattered Clouds. Low: 6 °C . Wind SSW 28 km/h . 40% chance of precipitation (water equivalent of 5.93 mm).

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Hi, : )

I was out shopping for food this evening and can say that one of my most favourite sights for autumn was right there for me! Roasting chestnuts. : ))
Since I was a very young child, I always loved the smell of roasting chestnuts on coal fire and being sieged by that smell from the side of the walkway was no surprise, so I got some for myself !! : ))

Then I headed to my Grocery store and got some vegetables and seasons fruits...One's got to eat fresh! : )

Yildiz

ps. Shot with my Samsung cell phone, 5 mp camera. ( in-camera-jpegs naturally! Sorry, didn't have my Alpha with me )


Roasting chestnuts vendor. : ) ( a bit shaky )

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Smoking...

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Some of the autumn fruits and vegies in Istanbul ..

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[Birma]

Lovely food shots Yildiz. You are right that roasting chesnuts are a great reminder of winter and street food stalls, the are all too rare here in the UK.

What a great Mouse tradition John, and a cute picture .

It is still warming up here in Worcester

Temp 4°C 39°F, Wind Westerly 7mph 11km/h, Humidity 79%, Pressure 1031mb steady, Visibility Very good.

Thank you all for the kind comments about my wife's photographs. I think she has a much better eye for a shot than me, but I wish she wouldn't keep losing lens caps . They usually turn up though. I'm trying to suggest she gets a Nex or Axx as I think she'll appreciate the reduced weight and size, and I would also get my A700 back more often .

[Dusty]

Chestnuts were very popular here, until we lost most of our chestnut trees. We could have saved them, but they banned the chemicals that could, so not the American Chestnut tree is almost extinct.

Dusty

[Greg Beetham]

Ha! I've got another request now Yildiz, bet you can't guess what that is...
Greg


ps. I suppose you weren't that keen on my choice of Hard Rock Cafe Henry...how about this one, a beautiful song sung by a lovely lady http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjsjZWlR ... re=related

[aster]

Lovely food shots Yildiz. You are right that roasting chesnuts are a great reminder of winter and street food stalls, the are all too rare here in the UK.

Thank you, Birma.

I love the taste of chestnuts and they certainly are a vivid part of my childhood. We used to find chestnut roaster at almost any street corner and roadside in the city where I was born and spent the first 13 years of my life.

And my grandfather on my father's side used to buy specially huge ones for us and would roast them on the big room heater / furnace in his old fashioned wooden house which would be a blissful experience. He was such a generous and loving granpa, bless his soul.

Chestnuts always remind me of his unbeatable-by-competition love for his grandchildren..and me, of course, since he was to one to name me also.

Thank you once again.

Chestnuts were very popular here, until we lost most of our chestnut trees. We could have saved them, but they banned the chemicals that could, so not the American Chestnut tree is almost extinct.

Dusty

That's a shame, Dusty. They are very spectacular trees too. I wish they didn't let go of the variety so easily in America! Very sad indeed...

Ha! I've got another request now Yildiz, bet you can't guess what that is...
Greg

Oh, I know. Easy! You want the small push-cart with the coal stove and coals still hot inside that the chestnut roaster owns as an ornament for your garden and also to entertain guests on barbecue nights for the sheer pleasure of it!

It'll be hard but I'll try to convince the airline authorities that it's a pleasant toy for Greg of Australia and no big deal to name as a dangerous oversized bombshell....

..
..

..

Hmm.... Oh, you mean the chestnuts ?!! Silly me, what was I thinking ?!!

Listed. : )


Yildiz




.

[Greg Beetham]

..

Hmm.... Oh, you mean the chestnuts ?!! Silly me, what was I thinking ?!!

Listed. : )


Yildiz

Ha ha, you got it, silly me doubting you....
Greg

[aster]

..

Hmm.... Oh, you mean the chestnuts ?!! Silly me, what was I thinking ?!!

Listed. : )


Yildiz

Ha ha, you got it, silly me doubting you....
Greg

I was kind of hoping you'd want the whole package, I guess! That would have been some fun at the airport with the shocked authorities! A short and bizarre moment of silence would have prevailed between us all... I can almost imagine. : )


Yildiz

[Juanito200]

I like the chestnut photos Aster.. I've sung 'chestnuts roasting on an open fire' dozens of times, but I've never had one. It looks like the meat puffs up like popcorn when heated... Looks yummy.. John

[aster]

I like the chestnut photos Aster.. I've sung 'chestnuts roasting on an open fire' dozens of times, but I've never had one. It looks like the meat puffs up like popcorn when heated... Looks yummy.. John

Thank you, John.

I had a couple of chestnuts at home which I roasted in the electric oven about an hour ago. They don't expand in size as they would over coal fire but the taste is the same still.
Chestnuts become soft when exposed to heat and almost crumbles down to tiny particles when chewn. It has a meaty sweet taste.

I took some shots of them to show you better and I hope I don't bore you in the process...

Yildiz

Raw Chestnuts; meaty and round ones are preferable.

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Chestnut shells should be cut into half so the shells don't become too tight for the expanding core inside which otherwise would explode like a firework!

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Chestnuts after removing the shells.

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And the soft meaty inside of the chestnuts which are very soft to teeth.

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[Greg Beetham]

That look nice Yildiz, what flavour does a chestnut have? I think you might have described it before maybe, but I've forgotten.
Greg

Townsville weather: It's raining again, and humid.

[aster]

That look nice Yildiz, what flavour does a chestnut have? I think you might have described it before maybe, but I've forgotten.
Greg

Townsville weather: It's raining again, and humid.

Hi Greg, : )

Thanks. Hard to make an exact description of the flavour with an analogy to other fruits and nuts but I'll try

It's rather sweet and if a good produce, usually tastes and smells like a mildly sweet cup cake. It actually tastes like one too. If I have to give names to explain better, I would say,roasted banana and honey with a tiny drop of vanilla and of course a little coarse, burnt flavour from the charred shells (especially when roasted over coal fire ).

I hope this gives a tasteful perspective to your mind's viision and taste nodules!

Yildiz

[aster]

It's Snowing In Istanbul !

Actually, there's a blizzard yanking the snow and rain mixture against window glass right now and it's very noisy as of nature... : )

I put some bird seed out and the starlings look happy with the extra help from the humanhands! : )

What looks like mist in the photos is actually the tiny snow particles drifting with the storming wind outside.

Yildiz
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Weather in Istanbul:
4 °C | 3° C
Saturday night:
Chance of Rain. Overcast. Low: 3 °C . Wind North 57 km/h . 30% chance of precipitation (water equivalent of 3.72 mm).

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[Juanito200]

Thanks for the info on the chestnuts Yildiz- We have a new asian market in Plano, and they have a huge supply of chestnuts.. I think I'll get a pound and roast them on my trusty Webber grill...

Ellie says weather here in Texas is great... Sunny and 18° C, windy but nice. Perfect for sunning by the back porch.

[Greg Beetham]

Good ones Yildiz you've even managed too make a foggy scene look interesting.
Yeah John, dogs sure know how to relax, that's one of the things I noticed about dogs, back when we used to have them.
Greg